A/N: Sorry it's taken a while, but here's chapter 9!
Chapter 9
The next morning Hermione walked down to the common room, where Padma and Ernie were talking, they looked up at her and said hi, but Ernie couldn't resist asking
"Good night?"
Hermione looked at him, aware of the inclination of his words.
"It was OK" she said quietly not wanting to give any reason for gossip.
With that she went to the Gryffindor common Room, she needed to speak to Ginny. When she got there a few people that were around chatting gave her a cautious glance wondering about the previous night, while others congratulated her on pulling a great Halloween stunt with the thunder. Ginny came down the stairs walked over to Hermione and sensed she wanted to talk, they decided to go outside since it wasn't raining. They found a bench and discussed the previous night
"So, have you seen Malfoy this morning?" Ginny asked
"No"
"What happened between you two last night?" Ginny had been dying to know
"Honestly, I don't know" Hermione replied
"I know you felt something, I saw it on your face, and his"
"I did feel something, don't know what it was though, probably just the situation, you know, dancing with the enemy and that"
"Hmm. You didn't hear this from me OK?" Ginny started
Hermione nodded and Ginny Continued "well you know Blaise and Parvarti are together now"
Hermione was about to say something but Ginny cut her off
"Well, this morning we were all up early and Parvarti said she was talking to Blaise and Malfoy came over to them and was actually nice to her. She said they had a really good conversation, she thinks he's changed as well, or at least is trying to"
Hermione looked at Ginny quizzically deciding whether to tell her about the encounters she'd had with Draco.
"I don't know what to think of him at the moment" Hermione sighed
"What do you mean" Ginny asked with great interest
Hermione proceeded to tell Ginny about the time in the library, the ball and how he can manage to be civil to the other prefects but not her. Ginny listened attentively before forming a conclusion
"You two have a crush on each other and don't know how to handle it" she said with a cheeky grin
"What! I do not have a crush on Malfoy" Hermione stated
Whilst in her head was a voice saying Ginny was right, Hermione did have a bit of a crush on him and didn't want to admit it. Hermione became frustrated with the voice in her head
"I refuse to have a crush on Draco Malfoy!"
"So you do have a crush on him" Ginny smiled
"What? Oh did I say that out loud?" Hermione groaned
"This is too much" Ginny laughed "the Gryffindor Princess and the Slytherin Prince"
"Oh shut up"
Meanwhile Draco and Blaise were out in the Quidditch stands talking, where no one would hear them.
"So you haven't spoken to her yet" Blaise said to a tired looking Draco
"No, what the hell am I supposed to say, sorry about the last five years and I think I fancy you, that'll go down well" Draco replied
"I knew you had a thing for her"
"Blaise" Draco warned
"OK, I see your point though. You could try being nicer to her"
"Tried and failed my friend. Every time I try to be nice, it comes out as an insult no matter what, she just infuriates me"
"You mean, you can't think of things to say so you insult her, or you're scared of appearing weak infront of her" Blaise stated
"No, well yeah, sort of" Draco mumbled "the insults happen on their own" he whined
Blaise shook his head and laughed at his friend, which earned him a scowl. The ice- cool Draco Malfoy frazzled by a Gryffindor bookworm. Not that Blaise found anything wrong with Hermione, in fact he found her quite pleasant.
"You seem to be doing OK with this new nice thing." Draco said
"Yeah, and know what, I like it. People are actually starting to talk to me for me, not because of my name" Blaise admitted
"You're lucky" Draco muttered
"You'd be fine too if you gave people a chance, you got on with Parvarti this morning"
"She's different"
"No she's not, a lot of them are OK, even Potter and Weasley"
"You spoke to them?" Draco asked wide- eyed
"Yeah, after you left the ball. They were a bit off at first, which was understandable, but then they were fine, I had a laugh with them. How many times have we genuinely had a good time in Slytherin. The Gryffindors have a lot of fun"
"Oh my God, your turning into one of them" Draco said with mock concern
"Oh shut up, you should give them a chance"
Later that afternoon, Ginny, Parvarti and Lavender were gossiping in an abandoned classroom, they'd done this a few times as they could talk about anything with out being heard as not many students went that way. But this particular afternoon Draco and Blaise were once again trying to avoid the Slytherins, (especially those such as Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle who thought Blaise was a traitor and was getting to Draco) were walking along an unused corridor when they heard laughing, then someone saying to be quiet. They followed the noise and found the gossiping girls
"Hey, what you up to?" Blaise asked Parvarti as he walked over and hugged her
"Not much, gossiping mainly" she replied lightly
Parvarti then noticed Draco hanging back, as if he wasn't sure about being there
"Hey Draco"
"Hi" he replied quietly
This took the other two girls aback, they knew Parvarti had talked to Draco but didn't think he'd be nice to her infront of others.
"You know Lavender and Ginny, right?" She continued
Draco didn't really know what to do but thought, if he's going to change these would be the ones to show it to. So he smiled and nodded hesitantly at the two girls. They stared at him for a moment before Ginny said a small hello, to which he was relived about because he'd been a git about her family. Lavender eyed him a bit, then walked over to him and pulled him to where they were sitting
"OK, what gossip do you know? Tell me everything" she squealed excitedly
For the rest of the afternoon the five had a great time gossiping and generally talking, Draco was glad Blaise had told him to give them a chance, they really were a lot of fun
"Are you guys always like this?" Draco asked as they made their way to dinner
"This is nothing, you should hear it when the boys get going, talk about a riot" Ginny said.
Draco smiled. Ginny observed him, he really had changed, not the spoiled brat from previous years, he'd grown up and she had to admit was easy on the eyes! They walked into the hall separately not to cause a scene.
"Where have you been all afternoon?" Harry enquired
"Gossiping" came the short reply.
Throughout dinner Hermione found herself stealing glances at Draco, she couldn't help it. Ever since Ginny had said about her having a crush on him she found it increasingly harder to remove him from her mind, and it was driving her crazy.
Draco was also stealing glances at Hermione and wondering why it was s hard for him to be nice to her. He'd had a great time with her friends and found it surprisingly easy to get on with them, but he just couldn't control his mouth around her and it was annoying him.
Occasionally their eyes would meet and they would look away quickly, Ginny and Blaise watched this with mild amusement. On their way out from dinner Ginny held back a bit, and discreetly signalled for Blaise to do the same.
"You saw what I saw?" she half stated, half asked
"Hell yeah, they got it bad" He joked
"This should be interesting" Ginny mused
"They'll never admit it to each other" Blaise sighed
"You never know" said Ginny as the two walked their separate ways